It's all in the terminology. "Virtues" sounds holier than thou to many folks, including me. I don't think I'm at all virtuous for gardening organically. I'm merely lazy and prefer to get the most efficient garden with the least amount of effort. Creating good soil, a diverse garden, and not stressing over every little bug or disease is basically what organic gardening IS, but it's also a time saver if most people could just internalize growing something less than "perfect". Stressing the benefits of organic practices is a far better way to win friends and influence people. And, to do that, it really helps to have a nice looking garden so that other folks ask YOU what your secret is rather than you preaching to them. To far too many "organic" gardeners, it's more of a religion or belief system than a gardening method, and that is a big big turnoff to most of your average weekend gardeners who just want to kill the bugs that are eating their tomato plants. If it takes you more than 3 sentences to give a solution to these average folks, they turn you off mentally. So, by the time you've talked about planting things to attract beneficial insects and handpicking and then you get to the BT, they've already tuned out and are reaching for the Sevin. They're solution oriented rather than process oriented. So, if you can offer a "solution" that works NOW, they might continue to listen to a few extra remarks thrown in---if you can back it up with an attractive well grown lawn and garden so they DO know it works.

Find out what they care a lot about, then find a way to relate that to organic gardening. I don't know if I've ever converted anyone, though. I think this kind of persuasion requires low-key persistence -- keep reinforcing the message, but approach it from as many angles as you can. For instance:

New grandchild? Tell people your lawn is safe for small children to play on, so if they suddenly get ill after being outdoors you don't have to worry that something you did caused it.

Like to be on the cutting edge of science? Tell them your garden follows the Best Management Practices of one of the world's most famous public gardens, Lotusland. The gardeners at Lotusland have researched the best ways to manage a large garden -- including roses -- and have determined that a range of organic practices produce the healthiest plants and cost the least (in time and resources) over the long term.

Frugal and practical? All it takes is common sense and a whole lot of free mulch (plus compost you can make from materials that would otherwise be wasted) to produce beautiful flowers. Makes a lot more sense than shelling out hundreds of dollars for noxious chemicals (some of that stuff is $150 a quart!).

Into gourmet food or crafts? You can make rose petal jam or rose beads, and not have to worry about being poisoned.

Busy? You don't have time to suit up with respirator and rubber suit once a week, or to watch the weather every day to see when conditions are just right for spraying, or to take the leftover chemicals to the household hazardous waste dropoff.

Security? Who wants to buy, let alone use, hazardous waste that needs to be under lock and key? A teaspoon (or a cup, depending on the chemical), could kill a family, and who wants to be responsible for allowing a criminal access to these kinds of chemicals?

So basically, the goal is to talk about organic gardening all the time, but not to use the term "organic gardening" unless someone asks a direct question about your methods.

I think the best way to convince others is by the example of your healthy, diverse garden. Having clear evidence before them should be enough to convince them that chemicals are superfluous.

I once tried unsuccessfully to convince a neighbor to go organic. She raved about our garden, even brought friends over to see it. Nothing I ever said "worked". One day I went to her favorite garden center, one of those huge mega-centers. They had prominently displayed fertilizers and various chems amongst the plant selections, I guess making it easy for people to get the complete package. the organic ammendments for roses, displayed by the roses, consisted of two items - bone meal and blood meal. So, I think marketing of lawn and garden chemicals eclipses most peoples willingness to try organic practices. I think advertising of chems is your biggest obstacle. The products of ad agencies and marketing have a lot more influence than me anyway.

The best way to convince anyone of anything is with proof they can see for themselves. If your garden looks good, people will do what you do. Be HONEST. Don't promise perfection. Admit the flaws or problems in going organic. Avoid talking about organic gardening as if it were a religion. Don't make up phoney arguments.

Extremism, like the type displayed by habitat_gardener should also be avoided. Most people when they hear such talk immediately become suspicious. Telling a non-organic gardener they are wasting "hundreds of dollars" on "noxious chemicals" isn't going to get you much of a repeat audience. Having to put on a "rubber suit once a week", and "watching the weather every day" is more extremism, and not true. Who does that? If you're using synthetic fungicides, you only need to spray once every 2-3 weeks. None of them require you to put on a rubber suit. And who watches the weather? The only time you can't spray is when it's raining. In fact, one has to be much more careful with "organic" fungicides with respect to the weather. To hot and sulfur burns the leaves, too cold and you get the same thing from copper soaps. Organic fungicides require weekly application, sometimes more frequently depending on the weather, and that is a lot more time consuming than spraying once every three weeks.

The comment about "crimimal access" to chemicals was pretty laughable. Like some criminal is going to break into your house to get some fungicide to do what, cure their athlete's foot? Rob a bank? What are they going to do, put it in a super soaker? Exactly the kind of comment you should not make if you want someone to take you seriously about organic gardening.

I've never been able to sway any neighbors into going the organic route, but that may change. We're in the midst of a pretty bad drought -- no significant rain in almost a month. Our organically treated lawn still hasn't browned out. It sticks out like a sore thumb in the neighborhood. We are on a common-well system, with 8 homes to one well, and yesterday the well captain (our next door neighbor) told me someone had complained him that I was wasting water on the lawn! That really cracked me up. With so many flower beds, I'm sure not going to waste water on grass!

A [real] picture is worth more than a thousand words. Invite people to visit your garden to let them see the state of the nature of organic gardening. YouÂll be the curator of the tour. TheyÂll leave impressed  if youÂve practiced the ways properly.

I think an Organic garden speaks for itself !!!!!!
It is so nice to look out over our garden and see birds and nature at it's best --so the weeds in lawn are there for a while --that passes --Hubby and I this year are going to compost and overseed and next year should be beter --seeing folks around here with there Chemically dependant Gardens and lawns makes me very sad - Nobody seems to want to work with Mother Nature anymore ............
We compost like the diggins [we got 8 composters] --we very much pride ourselfs on being 100% Oraganic
If there any problems anything can be 'fixed' organically
or by composting --we tell everyone Healthy Soil ==Healthy plants and Garden ........[do they listen ---somtimes ......]
I saw my neighbours Mother planting Roses the other day in soil that was like concrete [it made me shudder........]
also she did'nt weed and planted some of them right in the lawn (???????????????]
Then she told me she was starting a Rose garden [more shudders ..........] then she plonks down some chemical she called fert[??] I think that was too feed the weeds .........
She wanted me to yank some of the very healthy Perannual Sunflowers that I gave her Daugher [boy that got me mad.......]that were seed grown ...........\
Hubby and I feel like we are 'very' different from the folks around here -- in our boreing Chicago burb ...
We want to breath clean air --eat veggies from our garden that hav'nt been poisoned or nuked before they reach us --I think we are the 'normal' onces !!!!!!!!!!!
Somtimes I think we come from a totally different era .......
Hubby and I have even become Vegitarians [for almost 2 years] we wanted to feel healthy inside [would recomend being a veggie to EVERYONE ]our kids are 'trainee' veggies too
I think our garden does speak for itself --hav;nt seen anyone around here with a garden like ours .........
Viva being Organic !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Britmum

If people are willing to listen, i tell them: (Truthfully of course)"I stumbled upon organic gardening while researching why my soil had virtually no nitrogen content. What happened was, I added synthetic fertilizers which essentially stripped the soil. So I had two choices, either to spend alot more money and buy more synthetic fertilizer to make up for what the soil did not have. (exacerbating the underlying problem) or, spend less money and begin to heal the soil which tend to grow much healthier plants for me." They then seem to understand better.

I haven't really tried "convincing" anyone, but I certainly do mention it when talking about the roses. I focus on how much more life is in the rose beds (ladybugs, bees, I've seen a bird or two hanging out on the mulch) and the fact that I don't have to worry about exposing my curious dogs to chemicals on the plants. I'm not trying to grow perfect roses for showing, so it's not a huge deal to me if I have to pick off some aphids.

I don't want to start an argument, but why the missionary zeal to convert the heathens? It's that attitude that puts off listeners (plus all the exaggerations, as someone mentioned above).

I see no problem with organic gardeners mentioning that they garden organically and are pleased with the results--but stop there unless the listener expresses interest and wants to know more.

I confess--I spray a fungicide 2 or 3 times in the spring and a couple times in the fall. I normally don't use insectides, but the thrips got bad enough this year that I sprayed them a couple time this spring. Birds and butterflies and wasps and all sorts of critters cavort happily around my yard, and when I dig in the soil, I find worms.

Please don't turn everyone else into the anti-christ, and if someone is not interested in your sermon, drop it. All you are doing is irritating them, at best.

Sorry to be so critical, but I get tired of being painted as some kind of monster. I know most organic gardeners mean well, but . . . .

Heck, now I don't know whether to post this or not. I really respect what many of you are doing, but just don't want others else telling me what I ought to be doing, in their opinion--unless I ask for their opinion.

Sorry,

Kate

Kate, don't worry I have used chemicals only on the worst roses, but the rose with no problems I leave well enough alone.

My bunnies get some of my roses to eat, they love them and good for them. i would never give my bunnies chemicals, they don't get those ones.

My rose are in pots all year round, until we find a house. So I need to feed my worms that are in my pots as well. They sure are big and fat as well.

Rose sure love ink off of very aged newspaper as well. I have practiced method for over 20 yrs now and have always beautiful roses, even in my pots for the past 5 yrs.

This winter we had more snow then normally here in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The snow started very early in November and staied for a very long time, which the snow is normally gone the same day. Strange winter- for sure.

Some of my rose got alot of damage to the point a 3' bush had to be cut down to 1' because the cane die back that far. My climbing rose had 3 health canes and I lost 2 of them and this rose has been in the same pot for the past 7 yrs. I noticed on my climber today i have a new cane started from the ball already, so we now wait and see what happens over the summer.

Hugs Janice

I am so turned off by mankind killing everything in an attempt to make our lives better. We have so screwed up God's world. Now it seems we have no bees. I am going to set up a mason bee colony. If we have natural things that kill diseases on our roses but not the insects..seems to me it is a superior way to garden.

There is a kind of hierarchy in this process of change. The ranking goes like this.
Innovators
Early adopters
Early majority
Late majority
Non adopters
One survey says that only 2.5% of us fall into the first group while 16.0% of us are in the last group.
It is useful to gauge the attitude of your listener and pitch (or not) according to the response you get. Each of us falls into one of the classifications sometime or the other.